PJB-2019-779
Mrs. Warnabarana,RSW, (B.Sc.) Environmental Officer, Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development Weerasinghe,TK, (Ph.D.) Associate Professor, Department of Botany, Open University of Sri Lanka, (Centre for Environmental Studies and Sustainable Dev
Warnabarana, R.S.W
Abstract
Phytoremediation using vetiver grass (Vetiveria zizanioides) has been regarded as an effective technique to treat polluted wastewater from domestic and industrial discharges. This study was conducted to assess the potential of Vetiver grass system to remove the pollutants from polluted water (industrial & domestic) of St. Sebastian North canal using 1 months old vetiver plants and to find out the most effective plant age to achieve the maximum purification by calculating the removal efficiency of pollutants using 1, 2 and 3 months old (Treatment 3, 2 and 1 respectively) vetiver grass in a hydroponic system. Results showed that the levels of all the pollutants except Nitrate were significantly reduced during 3 months period. Highest removal efficiencies of BOD, COD, Nitrate, Phosphate, Zn, Pb and turbidity were 82.64 %, 54.55%, 88.15%, 88.31 %, 61.54 44.35% and 99.79% respectively with 3 months old vetiver plants. This may be due to increased root and shoot biomass with the plant age. According to the pairwise comparisons (Tukey HSD test), there were significant differences between Treatment 1 and 2 as well as 1 and 3 for most of the parameters tested. Based on the results, it is concluded that three months age is the most effective plant age to achieve maximum purification among the study groups of vetiver grass and is also recommended that further studies should be done with higher aged plants beyond three months. Therefore, vetiver can be recommended as an environmentally friendly approach for surface water and wastewater purification. Key words Vetiver grass, Phytoremediation, Removal efficiency, Biological Oxygen Demand, Chemical Oxygen Demand
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